An ISU professor is looking into the impact Iowa’s community colleges have on economic growth.

Frankie Santos Laanan, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies, said there has been plenty of research done on the potential earnings of a student who has obtained a high school diploma or bachelor’s degree. Little research has been done on the potential earnings of a student who has earned some college credit or completed a vocational certificate or associate degree at a community college.

“Most people don’t understand the role of a community college,” Laanan said.

Laanan received $270,000 from the Iowa Department of Education to study two areas.

The first grant, the Vocational and Technical Education Accountability Grant, focuses on the relationship among education level, employment and wages.

Community colleges were originally established to address the education needs of people who were not being reached through state universities. Now, community colleges provide a ready source of employees to Iowa businesses, said Rob Denson, Des Moines Area Community College president. Iowa has 15 community colleges.

Iowa community colleges and Iowa Workforce Development plan to work together with the researchers to create a data set, matching the level of education with the employment status of former students. The data would then be used in workshops with community college faculty and administrators so they can develop stronger programs for their students.

Laanan did similar research for California’s 107 community colleges and said the information provides a better way to train the future workforce.

“We want to provide the same kind of information to educators here to give insight to potential changes that could be made in programs,” said Jan Friedel, division of community college and workforce preparation administer for the Iowa Department of Education.

The second project, the Family Literacy Grant, focuses on parent-child interaction of Iowa community college students who are also parents.

Adult basic education and adult literacy programs are primarily taught through Iowa’s community colleges. The Iowa Department of Education would like to build the capacity of the programs by also focusing on family literacy so young adults attending Iowa’s community colleges can learn how to help their children become literate as well, Friedel said.

“We know from dealing with families that if you educate one person, the information will go back into the household,” Denson said.

The research will build on an existing family literacy model, which focuses on four components of developing family literacy — adult basic education, parent time, parent/child interaction time and childhood education, Laanan said.

Laanan’s research focuses primarily on the parent/child interaction time component.

“The goal is to take the existing model and apply it to a community college context,” Laanan said.

The Iowa Department of Education will use the data to identify the best practices in teaching family literacy and then apply them in the classroom, Friedel said.

Laanan hopes the research will show the significant role Iowa community colleges have on individuals and the state.